are unaware when the data is pill fered and reluctant to report the loss with investors, customers and employees. the pace of economic collection of information and industrial espionage activities against major united states corporations is accelerating. for example, in fiscal year 2011, the justice department saw an increase of 29% in economic espionage and trade secret theft investigations compared to fiscal year 2010. details related to recent federal investigations and prosecutions suggest that economic espionage and trade secret theft on behalf of companies located in china is an emerging trend. 34 companies were victimized by a set of attacks originating in china in 2010. in the attacks, computer versuses were spread to corporate employees.

foreign hackers constantly target u.s. companies in such ways in order to get every piece of competitive intelligence information they can. we simply cannot allow this to continue to happen. in response to this growing threat in our 2011 annual report, the u.s. intellectual property coordinator called upon congress to increase the penalties for economic espionage and this bill is consistent with that recommendation. i would like to commend the members of both sides of the aisle for their work on this bill, particularly the gentleman from texas, the chair of the committee, mr. smith, the ranking member, the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, the incoming chair of the judiciary committee, my colleague from virginia, mr. goodlatte and the gentleman from north carolina, mr. watt, who worked diligently on this bill and i recognize the leadership of senator lay high

and i -- leahy. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is -- the gentleman from texas -- mr. scott: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia yields back the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house concur in the senate amendments to h.r. 6029? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended -- the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: i object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause of rule 20, further proceedings on this moe -- on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: i move that the

house concur in of h.r. 6621, t correct and improve certain provisions of the leahy-smith america invents act and title 35, united states. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: h.r. 6621, to correct and improve certain provisions of the leahy-smith america invents act and title 35, united states code. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the matter under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for such time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: the american envents act, a.i.a., was signed into law in 2011, the first major patent reform bill in 60 years and the most substantial reform

of u.s. patent law since the patent act. the leahy-smith a.i.a. establishes the united states patent system as the global standard. over the past year, we have worked diligently to ensure the bill realizes its full potential. the bill we consider today includes several technical corrections and improvements that ensure the implementation of the bill can proceed efficiently and effectively. the bill is supported by all sectors of our economy from all across the united states. including manufacturers, universities, technology, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and innovators. as the provisions of the leahy 46 smith a.i.a. continue to take effect, the nation's infrastructure becomes much stronger, unleashing the full potential of american innovators and job creators. i ask unanimous consent to place the balance of my remarks in the record and i reserve the

balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from virginia is recognized. mr. scott: i rise -- i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: i rise -- mr. scott: i rise in support of h.r. 662, because it improves the america invents act. earlier this year, the house passed h.r. 6621 in a vote of 3088-89. the senate passed the legislation with an amendment by unanimous concept. now that the america invents act is law, our focus should be on how it can be improoveed. this is why i support h.r. 6621 because it accomplishes that very goal in several respects. to begin with h.r. 66 1 clarifies and improves provisions to help implement the america invents act, it clarifies provisions dealing

with patent term adjustments, derivation proceedings and terms of the patent public advisory committee. the senate amendment to this bill makes one change to the house-passed bill by removing the provision requiring the patent office to prepare a report on patent applications pending before the office for over 18 years. although this provision has been removed, we must continue to study ways to improve the patent system and make sure there are not delatos receiving patent protection. the bill clarifies the act, the advice of counsel section as it applies to civil actions commenced on or after the date of the legislation's enactment. this is porn because the original bill created section 298 that prevents the use of evidence of an accused infringer's failure to obtain advice of counsel or his failure to introduce such

opinion to prove willfulness or intent to produce infringement. the provision, however, failed to specify when the new authority would go into effect and it would be unfair to apply it retroactively defending cases that anticipate using such evidence. it makes a series of rather technical clarifications to the act. in sum it makes necessary technical corrections and includes substantive revisions to the act. it's my that the judiciary committee will continue its oversight of the act into the next congress and consider ways in which it can be further improved. i urge my colleagues to support the bill and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia yields back. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and concur in the senate amendment to h.r. 6621? those in favor say aye.

those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the gentleman from virginia -- mr. scott: i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further po seedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek -- the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. ros-lehtinen: i move that the house suspend the rules and pass s. 3331. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: s. 3331 to provide for intercountry adoption

accreditation standards and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, and the gentleman from kale, mr. berman, each will control 20 minutes. ms. ros-lehtinen: ski that all members have five days to revise and extend and include extraneous material on this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i rise in support of the intercountry adoption universe accreditation act of 2012. this is the senate-side companion to h.r. 6027, the bipartisan house bill introduced by my good friend from new jersey, mr. seres. it requires that all those in the u.s. meet the same accreditation standards whether it's from a hague signor.

the action o vladimir putin was a shameful response to legislation overwhelmingly adopted by this congress that targets russian officials engaged in human rights abuses, specifically those regarding sergei magnitzky, who was a russian lawyer killed in prison after having uncovered mass i government corruption including senior officials in putin's regime. instead of persecuting those criminals, he has cruelly chose ton target russian orphans by banning adoptions by americans. tens of thousands of russian children have been adopted by families in this country who have been given these -- who have given these innocents the love and protection they otherwise likely would never have known. now countless numbers may be condemned to challengic drive -- to tragic lives, knowingly

sacrificed by vladimir putin in a sickening effort to show the world how tough he is. is there any additional proof needed of this despicable nature of this man and his regime? i call on president obama to tell putin the u.s. cannot and will not engage in a business-as-usual relationship with a regime so utterly destroyed of humanity a regime that deliberately tears about the -- apart the lives of its own children die-- by depriving them of the love of americans who only wish to give these innocents a family and better future. let those in the administration turn their eyes from these outrage explain to these orphans why they must be sacrificed for the sake of good relations with the putin regime. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from kale is recognized. mr. berman: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of s. 3331, the intercountry adoption universal accreditation act of

2012, and yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. berman: i would like to thank senator kerry and my colleague from new jersey for their work on thegs will. this bill ensures american families adopting children will be protected from unethical and fraudulent practices by international adoption agencies. for years, conflicting country-by-country standards have plagued the international adoption process, causing harm to adoptive children and families. the bill would expand accreditation standards to cover all international adoptions. presently those standards only apply to adoptions from those countries that are parties to the convention on the protection of children and cooperation and respect of intercountry adoption known as the hague convention. accreditation standards help prevent the sale of children. it thwarts fraudulent

transaction practices and ensures standard fees in the adoption process. it urges staff with professional qualifications and training this common sense bill should have been enacted long ago. less than half of all families adopting internationally are protected by the hague adoption convention. -- convention process and we want to make sure that all family who open their hearts and homes to children in need of loving families. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: we have no further requests for time and we are ready to yield back once the gentleman from california yields back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. berman: i don't see the one individual who had asked to join in speaking on this so i will yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. ms. ros-lehtinen: we yield back

the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass senate 3331? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the gentlelady from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceed option this motion will be postponedful for what purpose does the gentleman from -- the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. ros-lehtinen: i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3159 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3159 a bill to direct the president in partnership with the department of development, the millennium challenge program and the department of defense to develop guidelines and for other purposesful the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlewoman from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, and the gentleman will each control 20 minutes. ms. ros-lehtinen: i ask that all members have five days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i rise in strong 130r9 of h.r. 3159, introduced by my good friend from texas, judge poe this bill stands for the simple proposition that consistent evaluation and transparency will improve the effectiveness of u.s. developmental assistance around the world. h.r. 3159 will require the president to establish guidelines for measurable goals for monetary -- monitoring and evaluation plans that can be applied with reasonable consistency to all overseas development assistance. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 3159 and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from virginia is

recognized. . mr. connolly: i rise in support of h.r. 3159. i would like to thank my colleague from texas, mr. poe, for his leadership on this legislation. he and his staff have worked to address a range of technical issues so this bill could be considered under suspension. h.r. 3159 is an important first step in bringing oversight to the foreign aid process. the first is to strengthen monitoring and evaluation so we be sure our aid is performing as intended. we make most of our decisions in the dark. we set budgets year after year without having any idea necessarily what the outcomes might be. this bill requires the president to establish a consistent set of guidelines so that all federal agencies will set measurable

goals and monitor results and evaluate impact. we can make much better decisions about how and where to invest once we know which types of programs are the most cost effective and produce the best results. the second reform is to increase aid transparency so everyone can see where we are spending the money and why. there are all too many misperceptions about the size of the foreign aid budget and exactly what it does. this bill will address that. it requires the president to maintain a web site that makes comprehensive and timely information to the public. similar reforms, mr. speaker, are included in foreign aid and formal legislation recently introduced by the current ranking member, mr. berman and myself and in the bills passed by the full house under the leadership of our outgoing

chairwoman, ms. ros-lehtinen, and reported by the foreign affairs committee in 2011. they both had strong bipartisan support. the administration recognizes the needs for these changes to create a web site that provides easy to understand data about our aid programs. they have put into place their own rigorous evaluation processes. all federal agencies carrying out programs will adhere to the same standards and at a time when so many issues divide our parties and our nation, this is one we can come together on and i urge my colleagues to support this legislation. i reserve. before i reserve, i would ask unanimous consent to introduce into the record a piece written by former chairman howard berman and myself on foreign aid.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i yield to the gentleman from texas, judge poe, a member of our foreign affairs committee and author of this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. poe: i appreciate the chair woman for yielding time. i want to thank ms. ros-lehtinen, and especially ranking member berman, and the house leadership for getting this bill to the house floor and also mr. connelly for his -- mr. connolly for his support. this is a simple bipartisan bill. we have equal number of republicans and democrats as co-sponsors on this legislation. last year, the house foreign affairs committee passed this bill unanimously as an amendment to the state authorization bill. this bill does two things. it increases monitoring and

evaluation of our foreign aid programs and also increases transparency of foreign aid. our foreign aid can do some good to other countries, but there are problems with american foreign aid. unfortunately, we don't keep track of what we're spending and we don't ask for real results. since the passage of the foreign assistance act of 1961, foreign aid programs spread across 12 departments, 25 agencies and almost 60 federal offices. there are so many federal government programs that they don't know what each other is doing and many federal government programs don't even keep track of what they're doing. according to an independent study commissioned by u.s. aid in 2009 they don't assess the impact on foreign countries. is our money helping people become more self-sufficient or more reliant on u.s. dollars and does it leave people better off?

we don't know the answer. this bill requires the president to set up tough monitoring and evaluation guidelines for development programs. these guidelines will monitor the evaluation of every foreign aid development program from agriculture to aids to democracy promotion. monitoring will allow us to cut programs that simply do not work. we need transparency. americans don't know what we spend our aid on and americans are frustrated when the words foreign aid is mentioned. until november of 2011, the united states ranked 22nd out of 31 countries when it came to transparency in foreign aid programs, that's according to the brookings institute and center for global development. we should have nothing to hide. let's tell the american taxpayers what they are getting. this bill requires more information to be posted online so americans can know what we're

doing. we can't continue down the path of the same old same old regarding foreign aid and need to restore trust with the american people. lack of transportation invites corruption, waste and incompetence. the losers are those the program aims to help and also americans who pay for foreign aid. regardless of whether a member believes, we should agree that accountability and transparency are an absolute must. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from virginia is recognized. mr. connolly: i have no other speaker and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 3159 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3

being in the affirmative -- mr. connolly: i object on the ground that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. ros-lehtinen: i move that the house suspend the rules and pass the bill s. 2318. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. >> an act to authorize the secretary of state to pay a reward to combat transnational organized crime and for information concerning foreign nationals wanted by international criminal tribunals and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen and the gentleman from california, mr. berman, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the

gentlewoman from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: i ask that members have five days to include extraneous information on this bill. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise in strong support of senate bill 2138. this bipartisan bill is senator kerry's senate companion the house bill introduced two months prior by mr. royce. since the 1980's, state department has had authority to offer rewards leading to the arrest and conviction for international narcotics trafficking, war crimes. these reward programs have been effective tools for disrupting and dismantling terrorist cells around the world and have enjoyed quiet successes in locating many dangerous individuals, including the perpetrators of the 1993 world trade center attack and saddam

hussein's son and the farc in colombia. this bill is a critical tool to find the murderous head of the lords resistance army in central africa. this bill is a bipartisan bill that will significantly enhance our ability to fight transnational organizationed crime. i ask unanimous consent for support and reare serve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. berman: i rise in support of s. 2318. i commend senator kerry and my friend and colleague ed royce the incoming chairman of the foreign affairs committee who

authored this bill and fought long and hard for it. the chairman has described the legislation and the existing law. the bill makes two key changes in existing law, they're small, but very important modifications to the rewards program. it would authorize payments for the arrest or conviction of those engaged in transnational criminal activity, including intellectual property, piracy, money laundering, trafficking persons and arms trafficking. transnational organized crime poses a threat to economic and national security interests. these criminal enterprises generates hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit revenues every year. expanding the rewards program to cover this activity is manifestly in our interests. second, this legislation would expand the universe of

individuals targeted for their involvement in gross violations of international humanitarian law, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. this bill would cover all individuals indicted by international tribunals for violations of international humanitarian law, not just those indicted by the existing tribunals for rwanda, sierra leone -- >> the house is not order. the speaker pro tempore: the house is not in order. the house is in order. mr. berman: the change is strongly supported by the departments of defense and state. i urge my colleagues to support this important legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i yield such time to the gentleman from

california, mr. royce, and the author of the original house-side version of this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. royce: i thank the gentlelady. and i do think it's important, as we move forward here, to expand the state department's rewards program. we have found a technique that works and if we can deploy this in order to bring joseph coni or use it to bring to the bar of justice some of the international crime figures that would be turned in under this bill, then it could be very, very beneficial. the bill has already passed the house and was included as a provision in the state department authorization bill that the house foreign affairs committee moved earlier this year. it is regrettable that the senate chose not to act on the house's comprehensive state department authorization bill,

but with today's action, this bill can now go to the president's desk for signature where it promises to have an immediate impact. the bill that i introduced h.r. 4077 has enjoyed strong bipartisan support and i thank chairman ros-lehtinen and i thank ranking member berman and others for the support they have given this measure and as has been explained, this rewards program to date and it's had some very, very successful cases here, but it's been targeted mostly on those involved in drug trafficking, occasionally on terrorists. earlier this year, our subcommittee held a hearing where the state department testified that one captured target, one narco terrorist told target, one narco terrorist told d.e.a.